Henry VIII, Francis I and the Reformation Parliament

• Autores: Peter R. Roberts
• Localización: Parliaments, estates & representation = Parlements, états & représentation, ISSN-e 1947-248X, ISSN 0260-6755, Nº. 27, 2007, págs. 129-144
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The legislative programme of the Reformation Parliament that had the cumulative effect of severing the links with Rome did not observe a preconceived blueprint or timetable. Even before he authorized the extreme measures that made the breach irreversible, Henry VIII was persuaded that parliament had a role to play in advancing the cause of his divorce and remarriage. There was at first a conditional element in the legislation, which was improvised at crucial stages to chime in with moves to negotiate a settlement that was contingent on Pope Clement VII's capitulation to his demands. The question of whether Henry's opportunistic tactics were well calculated to serve the ostensible aim of securing an accommodation with Rome is examined in the context of Anglo-French relations in the early 1530s. The rapprochement with France was made to serve the interests of �the king's great matter�, and Francis I acted as an intermediary in the negotiations with Rome. In an examination of the diplomatic exchanges of the summer of 1533, at a time when Henry was under threat of excommunication, particular significance attaches to the king's briefing instructions of 8 August 1533 to the duke of Norfolk as his envoy to France on a desperate mission to dissuade Francis from meeting the pope. This little-known document contains revealing evidence of Henry's personal understanding of the importance of statute law in establishing permanent change. He justifies the resort to parliament for a solution to the crisis as a fulfilment of the advice he had received from Francis himself to consult his nobility for counsel. The degree to which Henry VIII arrived unaided and untutored by his counsellors at the formulation of the sovereignty of �the king in parliament� is discussed in a review of the claims made by modern historians for the practical and theoretical contributions of Thomas Cromwell and Christopher St German to the making of the English Reformation state.